It's unclear exactly how many employees might have to be laid off in anticipation of drastic cuts in funding from the state Legislature, which is facing a $9 billion state budget deficit. The school is hopeful that some of the savings can come through attrition and keeping unfilled positions open.

"Regardless of what the Legislature does," UW President Mark Emmert said, "we'll still have to start letting people know what our budgets are likely to be, and that will necessitate layoffs."

That was just some of the bad news Emmert told a roomful of faculty, staff and students during a town hall-style discussion at the university's Bothell campus.

He said cuts would most likely start in administration and the school's communications division -- not to be confused with the academic Department of Communication. Layoffs could be announced as early as the end of April, in keeping with the university's policy of giving employees 60 days' notice.

Norman Arkans, a UW spokesman, said that not all -- perhaps as many as half -- of the 1,000 jobs eliminated will come from the university's not filling open positions.

Emmert's estimate of 1,000 fewer jobs was based on a 10 percent total UW budget cut, an optimistic figure in the face of a proposed 31 percent funding reduction from the state House. The Senate's budget proposal calls for a 23 percent cut to UW funding.

With the Senate's proposal, UW's budget reduction would be dampened to about 10 percent, Emmert said, with help from a 30 percent tuition increase over the next two years -- 14 percent each year. Gregoire proposed that prospect last week.

The Legislature is expected to finalize its 2009-10 biennium budget by April 26, unless it goes into special session.

"In the best scenario I can come up with, we're going to have significant budget cuts," Emmert said.

Emmert said he was "offended" by the funding proposals coming out of Olympia. Across the nation -- including hard-off states such as California and Michigan -- no states are proposing such drastic cuts to higher education funding, he said.

Nationwide, Washington is ranked 30th in state funding for four-year institutions, Arkans said. After the proposed budget cuts -- using either the House's or Senate's budget proposals -- Washington would drop to a rank of 42nd.

"We're running out of adjectives and adverbs," Emmert said. "It's unprecedented in the state's history. What's happening in the Senate and the House may be unprecedented in the States -- the United States -- in the post-war era."

The budget cut is estimated to take 10,000 students per year out of the state's four-year university system. That means, Emmert said, that Washington's major employers -- such as Boeing and Microsoft -- could end up recruiting more employees from other states.

"And our sons and daughters will be washing their cars," he said.

The 100 or so people at the discussion nervously laughed.

"Now I'm not saying all of this to depress you," Emmert told them later. "I'm saying it -- maybe to make you mad."